Poll Technica: What’s your preferred iOS mapping app?

There's a hot debate over iOS mapping apps, so come vote in our poll.

This week's release of Google Maps for iPhone sparked a new debate over what constitutes a good mapping app—not just on iOS, but on any platform. But for us iOS users, it has been a particularly interesting topic ever since September's release of iOS 6. That's when Apple ditched its old Maps app completely for a newly made-over version with lots of shiny bells and whistles—and no Google involvement.

But iOS 6 Maps has struggled over the last three months. User criticism was enough for Apple CEO Tim Cook to issue a public apology for what amounted to a poor customer experience, and a high-profile warning from Australian police to avoid using the app didn't help.

There are a handful of Maps alternatives on the App Store and the Web—some more functional than others. But now that Google's new and improved offering is available, we're left wondering: what is everyone using?

Do you have a preferred mapping app on the iPhone? For now, we're including Apple, Google, and all the ones Cook named as alternatives, but if you have another favorite that works even better for you, let us know in the comments (and tell us why you like it so much).

I have to say when it comes to the app itself Apple Maps is a massive improvement over the original Google Maps of iOS 5. Apple Maps is so much faster and able to cache much bigger areas, due to being vector instead of bitmap based.

The weak spot is generally the data used by the app, that could use some work based on the reports. For me it is not really an issue, the data locally is fairly good. The only things I have come across are:- Some local coffee places and bars etc. are off by a few hundred metres- A street that was removed three years ago and turned into a park and playground is still shown as street- A petrol station that was closed a few years ago was still listed (but removed a week after I reported the error)- The icon for the train station is positioned right in the middle of station. Not very convenient as it only has one entrance and you now have to walk around the station complex until you find the entrance. I have heard the same thing about airports where the location is reported as being in the middle of the runway instead of the more useful terminal building.

Generally these issues are fairly easily fixed as long as users send in the fault reports from within the app.

Absolutely Google Maps. I was excited about Apple Maps, but it's rubbish. It doesn't list my home town (which is a county town for fripperys sake) the town next to it is incorrectly named, satellite views are patchy at best. I also discovered recently when in another city, that searching for cinemas or food outlets is hopeless. So I'm very glad that Google Maps is back.

What I'd love to know is how to default to Google Maps, so that when I click on a contacts address in my address book on my iPhone is calls up Google Maps instead of Apple Maps. I don't imagine that is possible though.

How can you people live with Apple Maps!? You must not live in an area where traffic reports matter.

As stated, I live in Louisville KY. I test software for a bank and work from 730AM-4PM. That shift is very intentional to avoid all the worst traffic. Very rarely is there major traffic at either time of day and there are plenty of surface streets I can take to get home if I need to.

Thankfully Korea has its own mapping solutions - Daum and Naver, which I use. Google's maps are a close third (they provide English names for many locations, Daum and Naver are only in Korean).Apple Maps has almost no correct information about where I live in Korea, and what little information it does have is unsearchable in English and Hangul in many cases. The big joke here is that Apple just enabled location searching in Korea using Siri... a futile exercise in my experience.

I wish I could love Apple Maps, it is so much better in terms of UI, clean sleek but necessarily blank white Google style, and the way it handle pin drop, pin drag and so on, it is so much better than Google Maps.

But then again, I got lost multiple time, no transit direction is pretty much useless for travelling abroad (yes, I conquered Beijing public transit with Google Maps!). So, I'm back using Google Maps in the last 3 days. It runs very good on my iPhone 5, but super sluggish on iPhone 4, but I like it better than Google Maps on my Nexus 4.

How can you people live with Apple Maps!? You must not live in an area where traffic reports matter. In LA Apple maps is essentially useless because it only provides the bare minimum of traffic information while Google Maps provides much better "resolution" and extremely accurate travel times in traffic that make route selection possible.

Yeah, not everyone lives in LA. Go figure. You know, there are more places that are NOT like LA than places that are. You couldn't pay me enough to live in that infested wasteland.

I've been using Garmin USA. I don't think I'll download Google Maps just yet until there's a decent review of it. I don't even bother using Apple Maps. Great eye candy but worthless when it comes to correctly locating addresses.

I have been using apple maps since it was released, and it works flawlessly for me and the images are way crisper than what google maps offers.

Typical fanboi response. In Los Angeles, most satellite images are low resolution with Apple Maps, when they were high resolution with Google for years. Many points of interest in the LA Area, like the LA Zoo have outdated roads and the satellite image shows the parking lot as a construction zone, when it has been completed for years. So if you use Apple Maps and want to visit the LA Zoo, good luck. You would think Apple's lousy Map would get Los Angeles right, considering it is a major metropolitan city.

I've been really pleased with MotionX GPS Drive. Good feature set, options that let me set up my idea of reasonable behavior, and it has been very accurate in the states. I'm not thrilled at the cost, but willing to put up with it... Still a lot cheaper than buying Nancy NeverLost in my rentals.

I've used google maps on iOS and android extensively, apple maps a bit (even in Australia!). Turn by turn voice guidance is critical. Apple maps works properly when Internet access is lost, while google maps croaks. That's a big, big plus for apple.

I have been using apple maps since it was released, and it works flawlessly for me and the images are way crisper than what google maps offers.

Typical fanboi response. In Los Angeles, most satellite images are low resolution with Apple Maps, when they were high resolution with Google for years. Many points of interest in the LA Area, like the LA Zoo have outdated roads and the satellite image shows the parking lot as a construction zone, when it has been completed for years. So if you use Apple Maps and want to visit the LA Zoo, good luck.

Shouldn't be a problem. The Angelinos in this thread are making me seriously consider not ever visiting the city again.

What, no TomTom love? Paid a fortune for it (ahah) back in the day because of the preloaded maps: no fun sucking data out of the sky via GPRS (if you're lucky) out on the road in regional Australia ...

For Sydney metropolitan, Google Maps wins 2° to integrated public transport info and Street View, despite the outdated pictures. Both Apple's and Google's turn by turn are OK, as well as speed and looks. Will test more to see if Google's turn by turn sucks less battery reserve than Apple's. Do regret logging-in to Google when setting up tho' ...

I have been using apple maps since it was released, and it works flawlessly for me and the images are way crisper than what google maps offers.

Typical fanboi response. In Los Angeles, most satellite images are low resolution with Apple Maps, when they were high resolution with Google for years. Many points of interest in the LA Area, like the LA Zoo have outdated roads and the satellite image shows the parking lot as a construction zone, when it has been completed for years. So if you use Apple Maps and want to visit the LA Zoo, good luck.

Shouldn't be a problem. The Angelinos in this thread are making me seriously consider not ever visiting the city again.

Living in los angeles sometimes makes me consider not visiting the city again...that's usually a sign its time to head to the beach...

FWIW, I've been using Apple Maps in LA and it's been more or less OK for me. Transit just added bus route support as well.

No problem here using Apple's map app. The only thing I see it lacking in is more detailed information in say business parks, shopping centers, basically areas off of streets. I also think it renders slowly as scrolling through the maps with new areas shows that awful blanked out grid pattern before rendering the new area, unlike Google. And that's on an iPad 4! It makes it look like you are using a very underpowered device.

Navigation has not given me any problems. In fact, it has so far been flawless.

I'm sure once Apple's map app matures it will be a fine replacement for Google's map app, although I'll miss being able to occasionally use Street View.

I have been using apple maps since it was released, and it works flawlessly for me and the images are way crisper than what google maps offers.

Typical fanboi response. In Los Angeles, most satellite images are low resolution with Apple Maps, when they were high resolution with Google for years. Many points of interest in the LA Area, like the LA Zoo have outdated roads and the satellite image shows the parking lot as a construction zone, when it has been completed for years. So if you use Apple Maps and want to visit the LA Zoo, good luck. You would think Apple's lousy Map would get Los Angeles right, considering it is a major metropolitan city.

This isn't Engadget or one of those other trashy sites so please lose the "fanboi" insults. This site's fine comment section doesn't need to be polluted with that childish crap.

Google for me – and, funny enough, it's mainly because of the look and feel.

Google's coloring scheme is very similar to the way street maps over here in Germany have been done forever, so it all looks much more familiar and makes it easier to pick up info at a glance.

Besides, Apple doesn't do a good job of separating urban areas from countryside over here. It's fine in some big cities (probably the areas where they already have or are preparing their 3D flyover), but for small towns, there's absolutely nothing to distinguish a well-populated residential area from a country road in the middle of nowhere. (No background shading or anything.) Also, in my area, Google's POI database is much more complete and accurate than Apple's - and if I do report an error, it takes them hours or days to fix it. Apple has yet to fix even one of the multiple errors I've submitted to them since the release of iOS 6.

The missing transit directions, OTOH, don't bother me: Google's transit directions aren't very useful in Germany, either, so I'm used to relying on 3rd party apps for that. Being able to access these straight from the Maps app is actually a plus for Apple, as well as those pretty 3D flyovers. (I happen to live in an area that's covered, and it's one of my favorite tech demos for friends. )

I was trying to defend Apple maps but reality got the better of me. I do actually think they've had such a slap over this one that when they fix it, it will be great - coz its seriously got to be. Good as the new Google app seems to be, my preferred form of navigation is still my wife. She's one of those people with a bizarrely accurate sense of direction, dump her down in the middle of a French village she's never even seen before and she'll find her way around. Who needs a map app?

Thankfully Korea has its own mapping solutions - Daum and Naver, which I use. Google's maps are a close third (they provide English names for many locations, Daum and Naver are only in Korean).Apple Maps has almost no correct information about where I live in Korea, and what little information it does have is unsearchable in English and Hangul in many cases. The big joke here is that Apple just enabled location searching in Korea using Siri... a futile exercise in my experience.

I voted for "other", because I am still using iOS 5. Because of the podcast situation. I don;t want to get forced into that new system. Now that Google has a good app, I just need to find a podcast solution, and then I might upgrade.

I like the graphics of the new Apple Maps, but for rural areas where I am there is this strange blotching of the landscape with beige and green - with no discernible relation to anything on the actual landscape. I'm in the north bay area. Does anyone know what the colors are supposed to mean?

I use Waze a lot, and I like their map editing features (on their website) - I've fixed a bunch of mistakes in our neighborhood. I've noticed that Waze seems to cache at least some of the route in case you drop out of coverage - at least it seemed that way driving through northern New Mexico a few months ago. The real-time rerouting for traffic is very cool, and the police spotting.

I've downloaded the new Google map, but when it let the screen go dark on a local drive I switched to Waze.

Three days ago, I was split about 50/50 between Apple Maps and Waze. I had been using Waze as my primary mapping pretty much since it came out - then started using Apple Maps just because of its simplicity of use. It's just easier to use (both directly in the app and from other apps/Siri,) than Waze.

But since Google Maps came out, I've been giving it a try. Not sold on it yet (it has some REALLY odd quirks that weren't there in the older bundled version,) but in a few versions, it might win over from the Apple Maps/Waze combo.

Citymaps2Go because it doesn't require an internet connection so it's great for when I travel and don't wanr to pay for data roaming. Also I download only the maps I need which saves space for photos and such. It's far from a perfect app and it has quite a few faults, but it works, is offline and lightweight.

After reading and hearing the horror stories related to maps on iOS6 I decided not to update my iOS. Looking up addresses in maps is one of the features i use most, and a major point for upgrading to a smartphone. I didn't want to lose that functionality. I replied "Other" to the poll because i am still using iOS5.1.1 maps and so i have no real complaints.